Web hosting business is increasing day by day with the increase in websites and online businesses. Almost everyone, including owners of websites, applications, software and even big companies are using offshore hosting server. Since everyone is demanding off shore web hosting, the number of hosting providers is also increasing day by day. Billion dollar companies are making even more money as multiple businesses and solutions are coming online. There are different types of hosting provided by the hosts.
Off shore web hosting is a web server which provides businesses to store their data safely. The basic concept of off shore web hosting is to store your data in a server which is far away from your location so that it is safe and cannot be stolen. The concept of off shore web hosting started getting awareness when people started realizing that they need a censorship free hosting server. Most of the people around the world are using off shore web hosting to store content related to hacking, adult content and some controversial articles and many other things.
Location of offshore web hosting?
Off shore web hosting is mostly located in high tax countries. For example, in finance, servers which are located in tac havens have greater capacity and importance than those located in high tac countries. This is because of a general rule that is that offshore hosting will not be present in the country and will have more favorable laws than the country of residence. When a person wants to hire an offshore hosting, he has to make sure that there is no disruption in the internet communication of its country during the data transmission process.
Off shore hosting is widely used in the following:
- Casinos
- Bingo halls
- Poker websites
- Trading websites
- Bitcoin business
- Grow shops
- Pharmacies
- Adult content
- Replica sale business
- Software download website
- Music download website
- Off shore payment gateways
- Financial services
- Sale and purchase of gold and jewelries
- Insurance companies
- Multilevel marketing
- Telephone applications
There are also several companies which are considered illegal and the owner of the off shore hosting, whether it is located in tax havens or not, will contact the country’s authority if any sort of judicial is required.
Illegal businesses such as drugs, child pornography, weapons, copy right, cannot be posted or hosted in a hosting.
Types of offshore hosting:
The types of offshore hosting that exists in the market is quite similar to those available in your country. The types vary depending on the needs and size of your data. Some of the hosting are:
- Offshore web hosting
- Offshore hosting VPS
- Offshore dedicated hosting
- Offshore cloud
A company that offers you offshore web hosting gives you two choices. One being that you can manage it by yourself and the second being, the company will automatically update the operating system on the offshore server. Second choice is a bit expensive. The servers with a higher speed and are flexible are usually dedicated or cloud off shore hosting.
Recommended places to hire an offshore hosting:
There are several countries:
- Panama
- Brazil
- Singapore
- Hong Kong
- Taiwan
- New Zealand
- South Africa
- Mauritius
- Uruguay
- Chile
- Thailand
- Philippines
- Japan
- Germany
- Austria
- South Korea
- Romania
- Romania
- Bulgaria
You always consider two things. One being the type of business you are hosting and second, rules and laws of the country where you want to host so that there is no problem. Moreover, if you are not developing any kind of business activity with the local people of that country or any link with other businesses of the country, then you are good to go.
Let’s take an example of it. A person who wants to open an online casino gets to know that the country where he is going to host demands a gaming license. Getting a gaming license can be very costly. It costs you around 150,000 euros. Anyways, coming back to the example, after doing a bit of research, he decides to open up an offshore company on Costa Rica with a gaming license. With a bank account of the name of the company which is located in Europe, Bulgaria. Once that person has a legal structure, he can easily overcome the problem of where do I host the casino?
He was unable to hire the host offered in his country because the local authorities demanded a gaming license for his casino to open and also they forbid him to have clients from the country of his residence. Moreover, he cannot even accept payments of clients from bank because that would mean that he is doing something which is not permitted and hence, a legal action could be taken against him.
To avoid all of these problems, you can hire an offshore web hosting in Panama and you can host your entire casino platform over there. Casino customers who search for casino on either Google or Yahoo search are directed towards a server in Panama rather than to a server located near your country of residence. This makes the activity to cause in the country where the casino is located, not in the country of residence.
Not just that, but the server which will be connected to you with the name of Costa Rican company will allow you to perform gaming activities all over the world. Fin fact is, that company will let you perform gaming activities all around the world except for Costa Rica. With this example, we can see that the offshore hosting is widely used all around the world to avoid the legal documentation and gaps that exist in countries who have high restrictions.
Pros and cons of offshore web hosting:
Everything has its pros and cons. Offshore web hosting has its too. Let’s get you started:
Pros:
Anonymity:
If you desire for anonymity while choosing your host, purchasing an offshore web hosting will be the best option for you. The companies don’t ask you for any proof or details. In fact, they also select payments via bitcoins, hence making your identity undetectable. It gives the buyers a full proof privacy.
Freedom:
Most of the web servers are located in those countries where freedom of speech has a huge importance. If you are running a site which can offend anyone, especially the thoughts and working of government or any other company, then investing in offshore web hosting will be one of your best decisions.
Avoid take-downs:
Sometimes, it happens that the web hosting service provider gets terminated or its web server is shut down due to some legal conflicts. Even if you are not doing something which is considered wrong or illegal, normal web hosting server terminate the server. This might be a great issue for you, your business and your customers but don’t worry, with offshore web hosting, this will never happen!
Cheap:
Most of the offshore web hosting service providers are located in countries where there is either little or no tax on digital products. If this happens, then you will get a good server at a very cheap price, how cool will that be?
Check requirements first:
Always buy as per required. Offshore web hosting includes flexible plans. VPS, dedicated and shared servers can be bought easily at flexible rates. The pricing starts from minimum five dollars per month. This price increases up to thousands of dollars as per the specification of the webserver.
Other advantages include:
- You don’t have to hassle for any additional license or formalities
- There is always a possibility to hire fast servers without any displacements
- You can save tax easily because normally, offshore hosting server is based outside the European countries so you don’t have to pay VAT when hiring a server for yourself
- Offshore web hosting functions all around the world
- It can be hired by natural and legal people
Cons:
Slow server response:
If your customers are located in any part of USA and your server is hosted in Australia, then you might notice a delay in the server response, that is because the server is located very far away from the user’s origin. This might be an issue for some websites as speed matted if you want to build up user experience.
No guarantee:
Some of the offshore hosting service providers do not guarantee any anonymity or protection of your data which is uploaded on the server. Make sure that you don’t put any personal or confidential data on any of the offshore web hosting server. Don’t forget to always read their privacy policy and other major documents before buying a server.
Reliability:
Reliability is something which depends from host to host. You can never say that this offshore web hosting company is reliable and that you can trust its service provided to the customers. Make sure that you read some of the online reviews given about the web hosting or you can ask a friend as well and then opt for the service.
Customer support:
The hosts, they never provide a quick customer support to their customers. The only way they assist or contact their customer is via email. It might take hours or days to fix a simple issue of yours. Make sure that you customize the server on your own because if you don’t, then that might be a big issue for you in the long run.
Some other disadvantages include:
- They are a bit expensive as compared to the servers located in your area
- Depending on the country, it may or may not have customer support in your language and that might be a major problem for you
- The server might be fast or slow, depending upon the infrastructure of the country. It is never advised to have clients from a country where the hosting is being hosted. ‘’
How to choose the best offshore web hosting?
Most of you might get confused while thinking about the right offshore hosting provider, since every company offers to protect your data with their life. But the reality is that without you noticing, they hand over your data to some of the legal firms, hence, this is a major privacy flaw which you don’t even know about. Here are some of the key points which you need to know before opting for an offshore web hosting server provider:
Privacy policy and other documents:
Make sure that you read the privacy policy and all the other documents before opting for an offshore web hosting. All the hosting providers will hand over a detailed privacy policy. It will have some rules and regulations such as protecting the user’s personal details like name or address. Always opt for the provider which talks about the privacy policy first.
Test it:
A good server provider will always make sure that you enjoy the server and for that, it will make you go through a test drive. One of the best technique is to choose a server, buy it and run multiple tests such as speed test and performance test. If you are satisfied with the service and believe that it will be good for your business, then go ahead and purchase it by paying he annual subscription.
Customer support:
The best way to find out which offshore company is the best is by chatting with their customer support. Do a little chat, ask them questions related to everything. If they make you are satisfied with their answers, then pay and enjoy the server.
Choose wisely:
Make sure that you choose wisely. My advice to you is to opt for VPS or unmetered dedicated server because these two servers offer you full freedom and control over the server which is going to be helpful for you. Choosing the right server which is best for your business is very important. If you go with a wrong server, then it might affect your business and your website performance. Since a lot of fake websites are also increasing day by day, it is better that you opt for offshore web hosting, it will offer you anonymity as well as the power of freedom of speech!